The FIA add to the farce of the USGP.

By Parminio
June 29 2005

Max Mosley decided to pass the buck today on ruling over the teams actions at the United States Grand Prix by deciding to delay punishing the seven teams who withdrew from the race until a meeting in September of the World Motorsport Council. Mosley went on to explain that the teams were found guilty on two of five charges against them. He went on to say that his reason for suspending the punishment was he wanted to “wait and see” what the Teams and/or Michelin did to compensate the fans that were in attendance at the United States Grand Prix at Indianapolis.

Max Mosley was quoted as saying:

"As you will recall, there were five charges against the teams. The first of these were to be sure they were in possession of suitable tyres, and they were found guilty of that, but with strongly mitigating circumstances. They were accused of wrongfully refusing to start the race, found guilty of that. They were found not guilty of refusing to race subject to a speed limit, because there was no plan in place. They have also been found not guilty of conspiring to make a demonstration because they satisfied the World Council. They were found not guilty of failing to tell the stewards."

"The World Motor Sport Council has decided to adjourn discussion of penalty to an extraordinary meeting, when it will be seen what steps have been taken to compensate the fans and also what steps have been taken by the Michelin teams to make sure nothing like this ever happens again. The final decision will then be made after that."

"The difficulty is the FIA has no relationship with the Michelin tyre company, so we are in no position to impose a penalty in Michelin."

In the past the FIA as been thought of by most fans as being somewhat dim witted, but this whole decision takes the cake. Let’s take Mosley’s quote and the charges one step at a time:

Charge 1: The teams were to be sure they were in possession of suitable tires.
Finding: Guilty, but with strongly mitigating circumstances.

First off, for those who do not know, mitigating circumstances are in lamens terms, very difficult circumstances under which you had little or no control. So being found guilty under those conditions is nearly a moot point. In effect Mosley is saying, “It’s your fault even though you had no control over the situation.” What makes this even worse is his last statement:

"The difficulty is the FIA has no relationship with the Michelin tyre company, so we are in no position to impose a penalty in Michelin."

This in effect is Mosley saying, “Since I can’t do anything to Michelin, I’ll do something to you even though as I stated before, you had no control over it.” That’s issue number 1 that makes Mosley and the FIA look silly…and that’s putting it kindly.

Charge 2: Wrongfully refusing to start the race.
Finding: Guilty

This is an issue that fans from all over are arguing about and will continue to argue about for the rest of eternity. The teams acted under a letter issued by Michelin that the tires were not safe to race on the track as is. Since the FIA refused any and all measures offered by the teams and Michelin to provide for a safe racing environment, the teams would be negligent in the highest manner by making their drivers race against that advise. In short, if something were to have happened the teams, the FIA, FOM and Indianapolis Motor Speedway would all be guilty of negligence by racing cars that they knew in advance were not safe. Pointing an unloaded gun at someone and pulling the trigger should never be done. Pointing a gun at someone and pulling the trigger KNOWING that the gun is loaded is called murder. Either way, there is no way that any rational, thinking person can argue the teams decision to retire. That’s issue number 2 that makes Mosley and the FIA look silly…and that’s putting it kindly.

Charge 3: Refusing to race subject to a speed limit.
Finding: Not guilty – There was no plan in place.

This is without doubt the heart of the entire issue. The teams and Michelin devised a plan were by adding a chicane in turn 13, the speeds of the cars would have been slow enough to insure safety. It would have been an easy thing to do, and worse case scenario, would have postponed the race for an hour or two while the changes were made. The FIA countered that simply slowing down through the turn would be good enough, but had absolutely no idea on how to go about insuring that the cars did in effect slow down. They also could not offer up any guarantee on how safe it would or would not be. They also could not even devise a plan to regulate the speed and at what speed the cars should be regulated to. In effect, they offered an idea with absolutely no solution as to how to implement it. In the end, they offered nothing. Add to this not guilty decision that they were found guilty of not starting the race and the whole thing looks like a 3rd grade class is operating the FIA. (No offense to third graders intended, as I’m sure they could do a better job.)

Charge 4: Conspiring to make a demonstration. (Bringing the sport into disrepute.)
Finding: Not guilty.

Again, we go back to finding number 2: The whole reason the teams withdrew was for safety concerns. Now then, if the teams were in effect conspiring to bring the sport into disrepute and found not guilty, then how can they be found guilty of wrongfully refusing to start the race? It’s catch 22. If you don’t start the race because you have safety concerns it’s wrong. That, in effect, is what the FIA just said. Otherwise, how did the teams ‘wrongfully’ not start? What did they do wrong? Let’s go back to Brazil, 1999 for a moment and talk about Team Sauber. Sauber had to withdraw from the race for safety concerns. The reason? They had two rear spoiler failures in practice that led them to believe that it could happen in the race, so on the side of caution they decided not to race. The penalty? None. The FIA Hearing Charges? There wasn’t one. Flash forward with me now to Indy, and there are two tire failures in practice. Sound familiar? The only difference between the two is that this safety concern involved 7 teams, not just one. If this issue had been Bridgestone, would there have been such outrage? Probably not…as that would effect just 3 teams. What if this issue had happened under a single tire manufacturer and effected the entire grid? We all need to ponder that one.

Charge 5: Failing to tell the stewards in a timely manner.
Finding: Not guilty.

The more this goes on, the worse the FIA looks. So, since the stewards WERE informed in a timely manner, that means that the FIA knew about it long before it happened. That means that the teams did not do anything by surprise, at the spur of the moment or any other way. It means that everybody KNEW what was going to happen. Now, if you know it’s going to happen, again, back to charge 2, how can you be guilty of notifying all concerned parties in advance?

Then of course there is the putting off the penalty phase until the FIA finds out what’s going to be done to compensate the fans. Once again, we see the lunacy if not outright stupidity of the FIA. Michelin already agreed to not only reimburse ALL of the fans that were at Indianapolis for the Grand Prix, but to buy 20,000 tickets for next years event in advance for return fans as well. OK, so what part of that is the FIA not happy with? Also the FIA are ‘concerned’ about it happening again, and this is another reason they say they’re putting off the penalty phase. This after Michelin apologized and promised the FIA that it wouldn’t happen again.

So what are the FIA waiting for? They have been given guarantees in writing already. What’s the hold up?

The holdup no doubt, is that by the time September 14th rolls around, there will be only 3 races left. It’s going to be interesting to see if, at that time, the FIA yanks the rug out from under all of the Michelin teams should they have a large lead in the Constructors and Drivers championships. What easier way to negate some points and make it a 3 race championship at that point?

So there it is. The rest is up for the individual fans to live with, but this particular fan has completely had it with Max Mosley’s version of what the FIA should be. It’s a laughable operation that needs either new leadership or to be totally abolished.